The present invention relates to placement of images, and more particularly to techniques for determining one or more colors for an image and an area within an electronic document for positioning the image such that the image blends in with the contents of the electronic document.
The use of printed images that encode information has seen widespread use in recent times. Examples of such images include barcodes, and the like. These images are designed to be read by readers that use electro-optical means to scan or read the images and decode the information encoded by the images. Images such as barcodes are used for various applications. For example, barcodes (representing Universal Product Codes or UPCs) are commonly printed on product labels. A barcode reader may be used to scan and decode the information encoded by the scanned barcode. The decoded information may identify the product or some characteristic of the product. The decoded information may then be communicated to a data processing system for further processing such as determining the price of the product, determining availability of the product, etc. As another example, barcodes are commonly used for linking the physical world to the electronic world. For example, barcodes may be printed on a paper document and scanning a barcodes enables a user to access electronic information. For example, the scanned barcode may enable the user to access a web page corresponding to the scanned barcode, an electronic version of the contents printed on the paper document, multimedia information, etc. The barcode printed on the paper document thus acts as a hot link to the electronic data.
There is considerable amount of work being done in the area of designing barcodes and reading devices that are configured to read and decoded information encoded by the barcodes. There are various types of barcodes including barcodes comprising a series of bars of various widths separated by spaces of various widths (e.g., ITF14, UPC-E), or comprising arrays of dots and rectangles (e.g., PDF417, QRcodes), and the like. Traditionally, most barcodes are designed to be in black and white to facilitate reading by the barcode readers (e.g., black stripes are printed on a white background or separated by white spaces). The white background reflects more light than the black foreground and this property is used by readers to read and decode the barcodes.
The use of colored barcodes is also becoming increasingly popular. In fact, various barcode technologies are being developed specifically for colored barcodes. For example, two-dimensional barcodes are being designed with a plurality of colored glyphs. Barcodes are also being designed with a continuous color tone background and a barcode pattern that is not identifiable with the naked eye but only by an infrared detector reader. Other barcodes are being designed that comprise color bars and the color change between adjacent color bars encodes the information. Color is also being used to increase the amount of information encoded by a barcode. Reading devices are also available that can read colored barcodes. For example, scanners are available that can read and decode barcodes whose background is a light color (e.g., a color towards the red end of the light spectrum) and whose foreground is a dark color (e.g., a color towards the blue end of the light spectrum).
Due to the manner in which images such as barcodes are used, they have to printed such that they are clearly visible for scanning. This however often causes the barcodes to be printed in a visually distracting manner that reduces the aesthetic value of the material on which they are printed. Accordingly, techniques for printing the barcodes in a manner that renders them less visually distractive but still clearly visible are desired.